t^rvl  Virainia.Ua*/c&TcrKi 

Should  Protestant 
Ministers  Marry? 

By  Marion  Harland 


y\a  rv|  V  \  rq\  n  io.  WoMJe&Ji^x^ 


ur 


Should  Protestant 
Ministers  Marry? 

By  Marion  Harland 


^^^JAN16  191 


Witherspoon  Building 

Philadelphia 

1913 


y 


.T3I 


Reprinted  by  the  Courtesy  of 
"The  Continent" 

for 
Ministerial  Relief  and  Sustentation 

of  the 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 

Witherspoon  Building 
Philadelphia,     Pa. 


■WILLIAM  HIRAM  FOULKES,  General  Secretary 

JNO.  R.  SUTHERLAND  W.  S.  HOLT 

Associate  Secretaries 

W.  W.  HEBERTON,  Treasurer 


Copyright  1913 
By  The  Continent 

Printed  by 
The  Holmes  Press,  Philadelphia 


Should   Protestant  Ministers   Marry? 

By  Marion  Harland 

PAUL,  the  itinerant  missionary,  contends 
stoutly  for  his  right  to  lead  about  a  wife 
(inferentially,  if  it  should  please  him  so 
to  do),  quoting  in  his  support  of  the  claim  the 
example  of  Cephas,  etc.  That  the  right  was 
admitted  without  cavil  in  the  early  church  we 
gather  from  further  remarks  relative  to  the 
wives  of  bishops  and  deacons. 

Martin  Luther  gave  unequivocal  testimony 
to  his  views  upon  the  subject  of  a  married 
clergy  by  wedding  a  nun  who  had,  like  him- 
self, abjured  the  conventual  life.  From  that 
day  onward  .  the  theory  of  the  protesting 
church  has  not  wavered  with  respect  to  the 
right  and  practice.  Suggestions  from  irre- 
sponsible sources  to  the  effect  that  he  wars 
most  effectively  who  carries  light  impedimenta 
are  frowned  down  when  directed  churchward. 
An  unwritten  law  encourages,  if  it  does  not 
enjoin  upon,  the  young  minister  to  take  unto 
himself  a  wife  betimes  as  part  of  his  equip- 
ment for  the  home  or  foreign  field. 

The  consensus  of  parish  or  community  is 
that  the  ministry  of  reconciliation — the  noblest 
of  what  are  classed  as  the  "learned  profes- 
sions"— is  involved  with  social  and  domestic 
obligations  that  pertain  to  no  other  calling.  For 
the  right  discharge  of  these,  we  are  informed 
3 


by  the  church  at  large  and  by  individual  mem- 
bers, a  married  man  is  better  fitted  than  a 
bachelor.  The  minister's  wife  is  his  helpmeet 
in  an  especially  sacred  sense.  The  Christian 
home  ruled  by  the  united  twain  is  an  object 
lesson  no  congregation  should  lack. 

A  Fine  Theory 
So  far,  so  fair !  From  the  Protestant  view- 
point the  theory  is  flawless,  the  world  and 
human  nature  being  not  many  degrees  from 
the  status  of  Paul's  times.  Will  the  reader  who 
is  supposed  to  be  versed  in  the  Scriptures  bear 
with  me  when  I  ask  him  to  read  as  for  the 
first  time  the  advice  in  detail  given  by  the 
chiefest  of  apostles  to  his  *'own  son  in  the 
faith"  called  through  his  instrumentality  to  the 
bishopric  of   Ephesus? 

A  Perfect  Parson 

*'A  bishop,  then,  must  be  blameless,  the  hus- 
band of  one  wife,  vigilant,  sober,  of  good  be- 
havior, given  to  hospitality,  apt  to  teach;  not 
given  to  wine ;  no  striker ;  not  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre,  but  patient ;  not  a  brawler ;  not  covetous ; 
one  that  ruleth  well  his  own  house,  having  his 
children  in  subjection  with  all  gravity  (for  if 
a  man  know  not  how  to  rule  his  own  house, 
how  shall  he  take  care  of  the  house  of  God?). 
Not  a  novice,  lest  being  lifted  up  with  pride 
he  fall  into  condemnation  of  the  devil.  More- 
over, he  must  have  a  good  report  of  them 
which  are  without,  lest  he  fall  into  reproach 
and  the  snare  of  the  devil." 


The  whole  epistle  is  a  masterpiece  of  sound 
common-sensible  counsel,  informed  with  pater- 
nal tenderness.  Student  and  licentiate  of  the 
twentieth  century  can  find  nowhere  a  better 
manual  of  faith  and  practice.  Yet  we  catch 
ourselves  speculating  as  to  the  probabilities  of 
Timothy's  marriage.  There  is  no  fatherly 
word  for  the  bride  among  the  greetings  to 
Aquila  and  Priscilla  and  other  friends  in  the 
second  letter. 

However  this  may  have  been,  the  picture  of 
the  well  ordered  parsonage  and  the  portrait  of 
the  master  thereof  have  not  been  improved 
upon  by  modern  writers  upon  clerical  life  and 
clerical  manners.  Happy  is  that  parish  that 
hath  such! 

We  have  no  allusion  to  the  high  price  of 
foodstuffs  in  Ephesus,  yet  practical  Paul  does 
not  omit  the  truth  that  human  life  requires 
material  sustenance. 

Muzzling  The  Ox 

Harking  back,  once  and  again,  to  the  Mosaic 
injunction,  'Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox 
when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn,"  he  declares 
plainly :  "The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire," 
and  'They  which  preach  the  gospel  shall  live 
by  the  gospel."  Lest  there  may  be  some  mis- 
apprehension as  to  the  source  from  whence 
this  same  "living"  is  to  come,  w^e  are  admon- 
ished in  another  epistle: 

"Let  him  that  is  taught  in  the  word  com- 
municate to  him  that  teacheth  in  all  good 
things." 


Why  multiply  texts  to  prove  what  is  theo- 
retically a  foregone  conclusion?  The  obliga- 
tion of  the  church  to  provide  for  those  who 
minister  unto  them  in  holy  things  has  been 
recognized  in  all  ages.  The  right  of  the  min- 
ister to  marry  is  as  frankly  acknowledged.  In 
a  majority  of  churches  the  expediency  of  his 
marriage  is  openly  urged.  Almost  as  binding 
in  civilized  communities  is  the  demand  that 
the  pastor  shall  be  an  educated  gentleman,  and 
his  wife  a  woman  of  culture  and  refinement. 
Paul  sets  the  pace  here,  too.  "He  must  have 
a  good  report  of  them  which  are  without." 
The  parish  must  never  be  ashamed  of  him  or 
his  family.  Have  you  ever  thought  of  the 
deep  meaning  wrapped  up  in  the  phrase  "given 
to  hospitality"?  We  express  it  in  part  when 
we  say  that  "the  minister  keeps  an  open 
house." 

A  Miracle  Of  Grace 

To  condense  the  requisitions :  He  must  live 
in  a  house  large  enough  to  accommodate  way- 
faring brethren  and  their  families ;  to  entertain 
church  societies  and  "delegates."  He  must  set 
a  decent  table;  his  children  must  be  as  well 
clad  as  their  playfellows  and  attend  good 
schools.  The  parsonage  is  a  city  set  on  a  hill, 
and  the  walls  might  be  of  glass,  so  open  to  the 
eye  of  all  men  and  women  are  the  movements 
and  manners  of  the  inmates. 

Yet  let  me  quote  from  a  paper  issued  by 
the  church  sustentation  society  of  a  leading 
denomination  in  America  and  abroad: 


"Every  minister  who  is  duly  installed  over 
a  church  and  congregation  of  our  communion 
is  promised  a  'competent  worldly  maintenance 
that  he  may  be  free  from  worldly  cares  and 
avocations/ "  It  is  significant,  I  interject 
here,  that  the  word  "avocations"  is  used  in  its 
legitimate  meaning :  "The  act  of  calling  aside, 
or  diverting  from  one's  proper  calling  or  busi- 
ness." 

Eight  Hours  And  Overtime 

"The  competent  worldly  maintenance"  is  to 
secure  all  the  energies  and  time  of  the  laborer 
for  the  vineyard  he  is  hired  to  tend.  Your  mill 
hand  "knocks  off"  your  work  at  5  or  6  o'clock, 
and  if  he  be  a  wide-awake  fellow,  he  turns 
many  an  honest  penny  during  the  evenings  and 
half  holidays.  The  bookkeeper  may,  without 
let  or  hindrance,  write  up  other  ledgers  than 
your  own  at  home.  There  are  scores  of  ways 
by  which  the  professed  hireling  may  eke  out 
his  wages.  Physicians,  lawyers  and  merchants 
ask  nobody's  permission  as  to  the  employment 
of  their  spare  hours. 

"One  man,  in  his  time,  plays  many  parts" 
— and  perchance  quadruples  his  income.  Our 
ordained  and  installed  Ixion  is  bound  to  the 
wheel  of  his  "sacred  office"  until  his  "period 
of  usefulness  is  at  an  end."  (O,  familiar  and 
fateful  phrase!) 

We  have,  then,  a  finely  tempered  instrument 
of  the  most  approved  pattern,  which  is  not  to 
be  diverted  to  any  use  other  than  that  desig- 


nated  in  the  contract.  The  natural  sequence 
would  seem  to  be  that  a  fair  and  equitable 
price  should  be  paid  for  it. 

In  reply,  I  append  the  comment  of  another 
writer  upon  this  topic : 

'There  is  bitter  humor  in  the  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment just  quoted  when  the  'competent 
worldly  maintenance'  is  a  third  less  than  a 
mechanic's  w^age." 

Nearing  The  Bread  Line 

The  bitterness  is  made  pungent  and  the 
humor  of  the  situation  lessened  by  the  state- 
ment drawn  from  the  circular  letter  put  forth 
by  the  secretary  of  a  ministerial  relief  associa- 
tion connected  with  an  influential  and,  in  the 
main,   wealthy   communion: 

"The  average  salary  paid  to  our  ministers 
in  the  active  pastorate  is  $600  per  annum." 

Of  course  he  cannot  support  life  upon  that 
unless  he  be  a  bachelor  and  his  residence  be 
in  a  mining  camp  or  mountain  region  where 
the  barest  necessaries  of  life  must  suffice  to 
supply  his  wants.  If  a  family  man  must  get 
along  upon  less  than  a  mechanic's  wage,  he  is 
helped  out  by  donation  parties  and  occasional 
boxes  of  cast-off  clothing  from  richer  churches. 
In  plain  English,  he  and  his  are  paupers  as 
essentially  as  if  they  were  lodged  in  the  alms- 
house. 

Said  a  rich  woman  to  me  with  the  air  of  one 
who,  by  her  deeds  of  mercy,  makes  her  calling 
and  election  sure:     *T  always  give  liberally  to 


the  church  and  other  worthy  charities.  You 
know,  'Whoso  giveth  to  the  poor  lendeth  to 
the  Lord.'  As  I  often  say  to  my  husband,  'We 
cannot  ask  better  security.'  " 

"Church  and  other  charities!"  That  is  oft- 
ener  the  tone  of  the  rank  and  file  of  Protes- 
tant church  members  than  we  are  wilHng  to 
admit.  All  that  they  contribute  to  the  pastor's 
support  over  and  above  the  meager  stipend  we 
have  indicated  is  set  down  to  the  Lord's  ac- 
count— and  on  the  debit  side  of  the  sheet. 
Interest  is  compounded  according  to  a  system 
patented  by  themselves. 

Lagging  Behind  The  World 
Philanthropists  write  and  declaim  from  the 
rostrum  against  the  penuriousness  of  a  govern- 
ment that  pays  its  armed  defenders  a  "beggarly 
pittance."  The  soldier  grumbles  less  loudly 
in  the  knowledge  that  half  pay  awaits  him  at 
the  close  of  his  term  of  service  and  a  pension 
for  his  family  at  his  death.  Our  minister  may 
be  turned  out  of  office  many  years  earlier  than 
his  blue-coated  brother,  and  absolutely  penni- 
less so  far  as  any  provision  made  by  the  church 
goes. 

By  sailing  closely  to  the  wind  he  may  have 
kept  his  family  in  food  and  clothes.  He  has 
not  been  able  to  save  a  dollar  even  from  the 
stray  checks  and  greenbacks  doled  out  to  him 
patronizingly  by  friend  and  parishioner.  In 
his  most  prosperous  estate,  he  and  his  thrifty 
helpmeet  have  achieved  only  shabby  gentility. 


For  the  remainder  of  their  days  they  drop  the 
tattered  cloak  of  gentiHty  and  settle  down  to 
the  unequivocal  squalor  of  confessed  poverty. 

And  this  at  an  age  when  his  college  mates 
are  touring  the  continent  in  their  motor  cars 
and  eating  the  plum  cake  of  carelessness! 

Do  not  plead  that  the  church,  as  a  whole,  is 
ignorant  of  the  enormity  of  this  injustice.  The 
church  does  not  concern  itself  with  improvi- 
dent families  unless  they  belong  to  the  "inter- 
esting poor" — the  class  for  which  we  build 
settlement  houses  and  association  halls  and 
welfare  work  homes. 

For  Love  Or  Money 

If  poor  young  ministers  will  marry  poor 
girls  they  must  take  what  is  coming  to  the 
educated  improvident.  After  all,  the  out- 
spoken old  minister  was  not  so  far  wrong  as 
we  are  inclined  to  think — or  say — who  advised 
the  graduating  class  of  theologues  to  pick  out 
wives  who  are  ''pious  and  have  a  little  prop- 
erty." It  is  fast  becoming  fashionable  to  dep- 
recate the  marriage  of  ministers  who  have 
nothing  but  their  salaries  to  depend  upon. 
Careful  students  of  varied  economies  do  not 
hesitate  to  point  out  the  superior  efficiency  of 
Roman  Catholic  missionaries,  and  to  attribute 
their  success  to  their  celibacy.  There  is  no 
disguising  the  fact  that  wives  and  children  are 
impedimenta  that  cannot  be  cast  aside  when 
duty  calls  to  another  field.  These  are  spokes- 
men whose  deliverances  are  not  indorsed  by 

10 


the  church.  On  the  contrary,  we  still  swear 
audibly  by  Paul  and  content  our  consciences 
with  spasmodic  relief  of  suffering  consequent 
upon  ill-advised  wedlock. 

Is  it  possible  that  underlying  the  apparent 
apathy  lurks  the  belief  that  more  and  better 
work  is  accomplished  by  the  celibate  than  by 
the  married  minister?  That,  instead  of  overt 
advocacy  of  a  tenet  that  might  scandalize  old- 
time  Christians  and  cause  the  enemy  to  blas- 
pheme, we  foresee  that  the  end  will  be  as 
surely  gained  by  slow  starvation? 

Music  And  Ministry 
Before  I,  who  write  thus,  am  accused  of 
treason  to  my  faith  and  church,  look  the  ugly 
facts  square  in  the  face  and  say  upon  what 
other  hypothesis  they  may  be  explained  away. 
Protestants  are  not  niggardly  in  other  direc- 
tions. There  is  hardly  a  church  in  any  city 
that  does  not  expend  more  upon  music  in  one 
year  than  it  subscribes  in  three  years  for  "min- 
isterial relief  and  the  ministers'  widows'  fund." 
A  single  memorial  window  that  is  criticised 
as  a  blotch  upon  the  wall  of  the  sanctuary 
costs  treble  the  sum  asked  for  by  the  incum- 
bent who  demurs  in  spirit  at  the  task  of  solicit- 
ing funds  for  the  "sustentation"  of  his  needy 
brethren.  Maybe  because  an  echo  of  the  old 
epitaph  sounds  through  the  chambers  of  his 
soul : 

"As  we  are  now,  so  must  you  be!" 

Denis   Wortman,   D.D.,  the  able  secretary 

11 


of  the  Society  for  Ministerial  Relief  of  the 
Reformed  (Dutch)  Church  in  America,  has 
a  pertinent  and  feeling  word  upon  the  unwill- 
ingness of  the  clergyman  to  press  home  upon 
the  hearts  of  his  hearers  the  plain  truth  of  the 
attitude  of  the  church  upon  this  subject: 

**Do  you  know  that  it  does  grind  upon  us 
to  be  asking  help  for  men  in  our  own  profes- 
sion ?  It  seems  to  humiliate !  It  seems  to  lower 
the  dignity  of  the  ministry!  Possibly  with 
some  it  seems  to  bring  our  sacred  calling  into 
contempt.  We  are  exposing  poverties  many 
of  our  clergy  are  painfully  endeavoring  to 
conceal  for  the  Master's  sake." 

A  Sister  Church 

From  a  report  compiled  by  the  same  writer 
I  extract  statistics  that  should  open  the  eyes 
of  all  but  the  willfully  blind: 

'The  disabled  ministers'  fund,  started  in 
1854,  is  for  rehef  of  disabled  ministers  and 
their  widows  and  orphans  in  honorable  need. 
Assistance  is  unfortunately  limited,  by  want 
of  funds,  to  $200  a  year;  and  may  be  given 
only  as  recommended  by  classis,  and  year  by 
year.  We  seek  larger  annual  offerings  and 
worthier  endowment,  so  we  be  not  limited  to 
such  miserly  amounts.  The  annual  offering 
has  now  increased  from  $3,900  to  $8,535 ; 
which  we  are  bound  to  raise  to  $10,000,  and 
keep  it  there,  at  the  least.  It  has  an  endow- 
ment of  $114,000,  which  we  must  raise  to 
$250,000  at  least,  for  which  we  ask  and  entreat 

12 


large  gifts  and  legacies  from  the  rich.  Twenty- 
nine  ministers  and  thirty-six  widows  are  now 
enjoying  this  relief.  Meanwhile  the  number 
of  annuitants  increases  from  year  to  year,  and 
will  continue  to  do  so  with  increase  of  prices 
of  living  and  the  earlier  retirement  of  minis- 
ters from  active  service." 

The  Dew  Of  Our  Youth 

There  is  pregnant  meaning  in  that  last 
clause.  It  is  set  forth,  without  apology  for 
the  bald  statement,  in  a  government  report 
issued  by  the  Board  of  Education.  It  is 
headed  boldly  by  the  journal  copying  the  re- 
port: "NUMBER  WHO  SEEK  PROTES- 
TANT PULPITS  CONSTANTLY  DE- 
CREASING. A  remarkable  decrease  in  the 
number  of  Protestant  ministers  graduated 
from  the  universities  of  the  country  is  shown 
in  a  current  report  of  the  United  States  bureau 
of  education. 

"  Tt  is  plain,'  says  the  report,  'that  educated 
men  no  longer  seek  the  cloth  as  they  did  when 
the  nation  was  younger.  It  may  mean  much  or 
little  that  the  percentage  of  ministers  among 
the  graduates  of  typical  colleges  has  declined 
from  a  proportion  of  60  or  70  per  cent,  to  less 
than  10  per  cent.' 

'*An  examination  of  the  figures  collected 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  from 
thirty-seven  representative  colleges  discloses 
the  fact  that  the  ministry  takes  between  5  and 
6  per  cent,  of  the  university  graduates,  which 

13 


marks  the  lowest  point  for  that  profession 
during  the  two  and  one-half  centuries  of 
American   college   history." 

Put  side  by  side  with  the  humiliating  figures 
herein  tabulated,  the  certainty  that  the  de- 
crease in  the  number  of  candidates  for  work 
in  a  fast  widening  field,  white  for  the  harvest, 
is  as  well  known  to  the  aforesaid  Protestant 
church  as  the  simplest  fact  in  natural  history, 
and  that  it  does  not  incite  it  to  amendment  of 
the  wrong  which  has  brought  it  about — and 
what  deduction  can  be  drawn  from  knowledge 
and  apathy?  As  a  body,  the  church  is  deter- 
mined not  to  maintain  married  men  in  the 
ministry?  Actions,  more  eloquent  than  pro- 
testations, give  the  lie  to  the  professed  ap- 
proval of  home  sketched  by  Paul  and  nomi- 
nally indorsed  by  professors  of  the  Protestant 
faith. 

Crowned  With  Care 
It  is  a  favorite  trick  of  business  and  political 
organizations  to  "freeze  out"  unpopular  mem- 
bers rather  than  eject  them  openly.  A  church 
that  afifects  to  condemn  papal  principles  and 
usages  is  quietly  freezing  out  the  married 
clergy  in  its  own  faith.  Without  abating  one 
jot  or  one  tittle  of  belief  in  the  obligation  to 
spread  the  gospel  of  salvation  to  earth's  re- 
motest bounds,  we  insist,  practically,  that  such 
work  must  be  done  by  a  man  who  is  willing  to 
resign  the  joys  of  home,  the  companionship 
of  wife  and  child,  and  to  bring  personal  re- 

14 


quirements  down  to  hermit  fare  and  squatter's 
hut,  while  he  is  adjudged  capable  of  discharg- 
ing "acceptably"  the  duties  of  the  sacred  office. 
It  has  passed  into  a  proverb  that  the  pastor 
crosses  the  dead  line  at  50.  His  hoary  head  is 
disgrace  and  displacement  instead  of  glory. 

Resignation  Or  What 

"We  kinder  lost  our  relish  for  our  preach- 
er," said  the  deacon  of  a  colored  church,  "so 
we  done  sent  in  his  resignation." 

The  same  is  done  in  effect  yearly  in  hun- 
dreds of  Protestant  churches  made  up  of 
his  superiors  in  race  and  education.  Freezing 
him  out  is  equivalent  to  sending  in  his  resigna- 
tion. If  he  be  celibate,  he  may  have  taken  out 
a  "limited  insurance  policy"  upon  his  life  and 
scraped  together  the  premium  year  by  year. 
He  has  timed  it  to  fall  due  at  50,  or  there- 
abouts, and  (if  he  be  single)  he  may  have 
enough  to  keep  the  life  in  him  for  the  rest  of 
his  weary,  because  idle,  days. 

The  tale  is  trite,  but  none  the  less  pitiful 
because  it  is  so  often  told. 

Sensational  newspapers  set  "scareheads" 
above  announcements  of  the  rapidly  thinning 
ranks  of  the  church  militant.  The  church  is 
itself  apparently  content  to  let  the  logic  of 
events  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a  celibate 
clergy  if  the  evangelization  of  the  world  is  to 
go  on. 


15 


